“We’re nothing you and I. Nothing but hope misplaced by trillions of people. You heard the priestess. We’re just an incomplete experiment. And we’re not prepared for this. We’re going to fail. All the people we love will suffer for us, yet we will die in the trials nevertheless. All that we have put them through won’t mean anything.”
“I can’t give myself over to the enemy.”
“We must end it to save the ones we love. If you cannot bring yourself to surrender to the enemy, there is another way.”
“What…what do you expect me to do?”
The shadow reached out and placed her icy hands on Oona's cheeks. Then it leaned in and whispered. "Kill us. Throw yourself off this cliff and end the suffering."
Oona swallowed. “I…I can’t.”
“Not for Siv, Mitsuki, and Bishop? Not for Kyralla? Not even for our father?”
“Dad…” Oona moaned softly.
In a blink, the temple was gone, and she saw her father in an old, broken down starship. He was lying on a mattress beside the devilish young woman with mismatched clothes, a pink topknot, and odd features.
Though Oona sensed deep within her father his worry for her and Kyralla, and his desperation to see that they were safe, she couldn’t miss the pleasure he felt within the woman’s company and his growing sense of happiness.
She couldn’t hear anything, but the young woman leaned over close to him and said something, and her father laughed, shifting toward her. And then their lips were almost touching.
“No!” she shouted. “She’s evil!”
Oona snapped back to her body on the Outworld Ranger. She lay bruised on the cold floor of the cargo bay. As her vision cleared and her eyes focused on her surroundings, the shadow whispered one last time.
“He could be happy and safe if we were gone.”
Oona shivered, then groaned as the aches and bruises from falling announced their presence. A figure loomed over her. Oona flinched and nearly scrambled away.
“Are you okay?” Kyralla asked.
Oona released a sigh of relief, surged to her feet, and wrapped Kyralla in a deep hug. “I love you.”
Kyralla laughed nervously. “I love you, too. Are you okay? You were out a long time.”
Oona choked back tears and nodded. Then she pulled away and focused her mind on the present. “I saw the priestess. She explained so much to me. I don’t even know if I can remember it all.” She grabbed Kyralla’s hands. “And Dad! I had another vision. I saw him. He’s alive.”
Kyralla released a deep breath, tension easing out of her posture. “He’s okay?”
Oona nodded. “He’s safe.”
She didn’t tell Kyralla of the tiny doubt worming its way into her mind, a doubt that said maybe seeing him safe had been nothing more than a trick of the shadow, trying to make her think he was happy so that she would give up.
Cause why would he be so comfortable with the strange woman who’d saved him, the devilish woman Oona didn’t trust, the woman Oona knew was hiding something dark and mysterious?
Perhaps she was wrong, though. Perhaps in the midst of all this turmoil, he'd found someone who could make him happy, the way Kyralla had discovered piloting was her true calling.
“Maybe I am the problem,” Oona couldn't help but think to herself. “Without me, they might all be safe and happy.”
17
Siv Gendin
Despite what they'd done for them, Siv and Mitsuki chose to stay in the room Oktara had initially confined them to. Oktara hadn't told them that they couldn't leave, but they hadn't asked to either. Siv found it preferable to stay here rather than have to mingle with the Hydrogenists. He sympathized with their plight but still found them weird.
Silky completed the work on the transfer chamber, fixing the firmware and placing the operating system into its self-repair mode. Within an hour of Silky announcing that it was fixed, the Solace jumped to the edge of the Titus system.
“You have no idea how grateful to you we all are. No idea.”
The ship's jamming sequences and cloaking device were enabled, but the advanced command module had only achieved sixty-eight percent operational capacity. The cloaking could fail at any moment, so they skirted along the edge of the system which would allow them to retreat quickly if necessary.
“I will personally take you to Titus II now,” Oktara told them.
“You have another ship?” Siv asked.
“He does, sir, and it’s far, far, far less than ideal. And I’m not sure I used the word ‘far’ enough times or with enough emphasis.”
Oktara nodded and headed for the door. "Follow me, please. Hurry, we need to depart while the Solace is still cloaked to maintain our disguise.”
He led them through the passenger sections, where they gathered their packs, to a service elevator that took them down to the cargo section. At the end of the main corridor, they came to a stop outside the last cargo bay. Oktara opened the door and gestured for them to enter.
Siv went first. The cargo area had been converted into a launch bay. He eyed the ship docked there and cringed.
“Surprise, sir. It’s less than not ideal. It’s a genuine piece of shit!”
Oktara's additional ship was a surprisingly fat, courier-class vessel that looked as if it had seen a dozen battles and had been pulled out of retirement twenty-four times. Only random chips of paint remained on its scarred surface. It had a single flak cannon and no other weaponry.
“I present to you the Bumblebee,” Oktara said.
“Because it’s faster and more agile than it looks?” Mitsuki asked.
Oktara laughed. “We named it that because of the droning buzz the engines make. And it’s sort of shaped that way too, I think.”
“This is a TRX-C, sir. It’s meant for transporting small cargo loads rather than passengers. They’re slow and sorely lacking in maneuverability. Most were retired from service centuries ago, so you can get them from a scrapyard for cheap.”
“What do they need this thing for? They have escape pods.”
Before Silky could reply, Oktara answered the question. “We use it for running errands. If in the middle of studying one of the gods, we run out of a few supplies, I can fly the Bumblebee to the nearest planet and purchase what we need.”
“It would be preferable to approach using the Solace,” Siv suggested.
“I will not risk it.”
He glanced to Mitsuki. “Perhaps if we waited a day or two for the command module to reach full capacity…”
“Have Silky show you all the ships in this system,” Oktara said. “Then you will know why that’s not an option, despite what you’ve done for us.”
Silky brought up a display showing all the ships within range, along with known designations and affiliations. "And that's the ones in range that aren't hiding like the Tekk Reapers are no doubt doing. And I'm sure Kaleeb is here somewhere."
“I hope we don’t get into any scrapes,” Mitsuki said in a dejected tone.
Oktara nodded solemnly. “We would be easily destroyed or neutralized and boarded if that happened. This is not a ship for combat or outrunning one’s enemies. But it’s your only option for getting where you want to be, so count yourself lucky that we have it. And I do not think it will draw much attention.”
“We are grateful,” Mitsuki replied.
They boarded the vessel and joined Oktara in the cockpit, which had two passenger seats. The entire ship was operated from a single command chair. Oktara triggered the fusion reactor, and the buzzing kicked in immediately, growing louder by the second. At its peak, Siv wanted to dig a finger into his ears to make sure an insect hadn’t crawled inside.
“Sir, I will be turning off my audio surveillance now in order to…um…save energy.”
“I think you should have to suffer with us.”
“Not a chance, sir. That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard. The previous record holder was your father singing in the shower, but that pales in co
mparison to this noise.”
Siv smiled, remembering how his father would always take an incredibly long shower right after returning from an expedition. And during those showers, he would warble loudly through entire albums worth of songs.
“You don’t actually hear things,” Mitsuki said. “Just alter the unpleasant data.”
“Organicist… Biologicalist… Asshole.”
“I would strap in,” Oktara said. “The launch will be rough.”
“Are there any rooms not used for cargo?” Mitsuki asked.
“There’s a single cramped bedroom that you’re welcome to use if you get tired.”
“That shouldn’t be necessary,” Siv said.
Oktara smiled wryly. “It’s going to take nearly a day to get there at full speed.”
“’Nevolence, that’s slow!” Mitsuki said.
"That's as fast as she will go, I'm afraid," Oktara replied. "Like I said, this isn't a ship for running or fighting. We will simply have to avoid other ships and manage any encounters we can't avoid. To that end, there is a smuggler's nook in the engine room. You should be able to cram yourselves in there if you don't mind getting a little familiar with one another."
“We’re already pretty familiar,” Mitsuki laughed.
Siv shot her a dark look.
“The lack of tuning in the engines actually scrambles any detection equipment used in there, so I doubt anyone would find you.”
"He's not joking about that effect, sir. I had to recalibrate the ScanField-3 to compensate for the interference. It might even be enough to fool Kaleeb and his sky-blade…maybe."
"I'm starting to wonder if we are safe at all on this ship."
“Sir, it can’t take a hit from anything more significant than a rock thrown by a weak two-year-old…without breaking apart or exploding. Seriously, a single plasma bolt would knock out the shields. A second would destroy it.”
“We have installed some basic jamming equipment on her, for good measure,” Oktara said. “And something tells me you have a bit of capability in that area yourselves.”
“We do,” Siv answered. “But I’m not sure how much good it will do.”
Oktara turned on the ship’s antigrav, and it lifted off the deck as the launch bay doors opened. “I will do my best to hide you and get you there safely.”
“We understand,” Siv said.
Oktara locked his eyes on each of them in turn. “I wouldn’t help criminals in this situation. But I believe that you are good people who have been thrown into rough circumstances and are doing your best to succeed, and I sympathize with your plight.”
“You have a lot of faith in us,” Siv said.
“Because you have much faith in your own cause,” Oktara replied. “I respect that. And I do sincerely hope you can succeed and the girl survives to restore the Benevolency.”
The plasma window vanished, and Oktara launched the courier ship into space.
The Bumblebee’s exit from the Solace threw them back into their seats. As it continued to accelerate, the g-forces steadily increased until the ship began to shake and rattle.
“Sorry,” Oktara said, his voice trembling, “the inertial dampeners seem to be on the fritz again.”
If he’d had the breath for it, Siv would have laughed. This was the only time he'd ever been thankful a ship was slow to accelerate and had a pitiful top speed.
Forty-five minutes after they launched from the Solace, the inertial dampeners caught up.
“Well, that was fun, wasn’t it, sir?”
“Shut it, Silkster.”
Oktara settled back into the command chair then turned to Mitsuki. “As I recall, you were very interested in hearing about our faith.” He smiled broadly. “I know you were trying to appease me. That said, we have a lot of time to kill.”
Mitsuki sighed. “Why not?”
“We must all devote ourselves to something,” Oktara said. “I believe everyone follows a guiding principle, whether they choose one or not. Sadly, most who have not intentionally chosen a path are guided by the principles of nihilism and the eternal waste of the present.
"Our worship of Jovian bodies is more than a connection to our past. It is the way we connect with the divine in all things. We could worship stars, but they are so constant in their burning. The nebulae are colorful and ever-changing, but their movements are glacial. Other planetary bodies are little more than chunks of rock and ice. And those with life on them are complicated and too often inhabited, making them uninteresting to us.
"But the gas giants have color and grandeur. Many have swirling storms that paint an ever-changing masterpiece. We study their swirls and seek meaning within them. But the meanings are not from the giants themselves, nor the universe. Those meanings we see are simply the divine that is within us and all things. In short, we have chosen a pleasant view outside so that we see more aptly that which is within us."
Siv wondered what principles guided him. He had never really given it any thought. He’d simply done the best he could to be as good a person as possible while serving the Shadowslip.
"Like you, I was set upon a path not of my choosing at an early age," Oktara said to Siv as if he'd read his mind. And perhaps he had. "But once I had the chance, I chose for myself a new guiding principle, one that could fulfill the destiny I wanted for myself."
“Whatever his abilities are, sir, he’s discerned more than an empath could.”
“That was a good guess,” Siv said. “I have not had much freedom.”
“You do not yet understand your place in this galaxy, but I think if you have patience and trust what is in your heart, you will find your true calling.”
“I’m afraid I won’t live long enough to find my place,” Siv said truthfully. “And I guess now’s when you’re going to tell me death is merely another journey.”
Oktara laughed. “I have no idea what death is, other than the end of my living in this form in this place at this time. Is it a journey or a true end? Who can say?”
“And what of my path?” Mitsuki asked.
He swiveled around to face her. “You know exactly what your path is, and you have now, at last, the bravery to follow it.”
“Is that so?” Mitsuki asked, masking her surprise and displeasure.
“Of course, it is. You have found your redemption.”
“From what?”
“Guilt and helplessness.”
She nodded. “You’re…very perceptive.”
“Too perceptive,” Siv said.
“I hope we never see him again after this,” Mitsuki said.
“Whether we do or not will only be the result of following our truest path,” Silky mocked.
Siv thought about his destiny while Oktara explained the details of their faith.
“The Solace is away now,” Silky announced through the ship’s comm.
“The cloaking device?” Oktara asked.
“Remained effective, as did the advanced jamming,” Silky said. “I do not think anyone spotted your ship.”
The Bumblebee, however, had immediately been targeted by long-range scans from one vessel…then another and another. Any other time, it would have been laughable to get relentlessly pinged like this, as if they were traveling in a capital-class battleship instead of an old junker.
But starships of all types were swarming everywhere, clustering around the natural entry points from nearby systems. Of course, most ships took routes that landed them in those areas, so the Bumblebee shouldn't especially stand out.
Silky had boosted the ScanField-3 to level five, allowing him to monitor everything between them and Titus II. Up to halfway to the planet, he could scan ships in detail and gather any information about them that he wanted. Beyond that, he could only detect the ship’s name, their type, and size.
“Sir, based on my scans, a quarter of the ships near us, and some of those not far beyond, are heavily armed. That doesn’t automatically make them enemies, of course.”
; “Given the situation, I think it’s a safe assumption.”
"Indeed, sir. A better indicator might be the number of ships in this area that immediately scanned us, which gets us up to nineteen vessels. There are dozens and dozens closer to the planet that will be enemies."
“Do we know the identities of any of those close by?” Mitsuki asked.
“I’ve identified one World Bleeder cruiser and three Shadowslip courier vessels that have visited Ekaran IV before,” Silky replied. “They’re going to need to do a better job of masking their signals than that. In fact, give me a few minutes, and their poor craftsmanship may allow me to find any other Shadowslip vessels that are here.”
“Are you including Titus II’s navy in your list of threats?” Mitsuki asked.
“Sadly, I am not. If you would like to assume they are enemies as well, then triple the number of armed ships potentially opposing us. They’ve pulled their entire fleet back and are holding formation in orbit.”
“As bad as that sounds, I’m more worried about Kaleeb’s ship and the Tekk Reapers,” Siv said.
“Don’t forget the Thousand Worlders,” Mitsuki cautioned. “Never underestimate them. You saw their audacity in bringing a warship directly into the Ekaran system. And I bet there are many more ships hiding from us now, or that are simply too far from our range.”
“I have no doubt there are many, many more and some still arriving,” Silky said.
“Do you want to clue me in on your silent conversations?” Oktara asked. “I like to know when death stalks me.”
“Sorry,” Siv said. “So far we have been scanned by about twenty vessels we believe to be hostile. And we’ve seen no sign of Kaleeb.”
“I’m impressed. Your personal scanning system is far stronger than what this ship possesses.”
“That’s not really surprising, is it?” Mitsuki asked.
He glanced over at her and laughed. “I suppose it’s not.”
“Speak of the ruddy devil, and he shows up. Sir, Kaleeb’s ship is moving in on us and fast.”
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